Lutheran Family Services refugee and asylee program<\/a> to offer a comprehensive welcome to families relocating the U.S. Lutheran Family Services provides legal services, educational and job assistance, financial guidance and support, translators and social services to the families. As per the guidelines of Lutheran Family Services, Gateway Presbyterian provides six months of transitional housing, an initial furniture and home goods setup, mentoring, day-to-day assistance and companionship.<\/p>\nChurch member Scott Lyon leads the refugee mentorship program, saying, \u201cWe mentors certainly get as much out of the experience as the refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now serving its fourth family, The House Next Door has helped two families from Afghanistan, a Syrian family and recently received an Iraqi family. With anywhere from five to seven active mentors at any time, Lyon said there is great enthusiasm at the church for participating in the ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI make periodic announcements during church services, and I\u2019m sometimes surprised by the number of people that come up to me,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are looking for ways to help. I mean, that\u2019s why you join churches \u2013 to be a part of something good and meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon said mentors commit to an hour or two a week, helping with daily logistics, shopping and navigating a new cultural context. Refugee children are enrolled in local schools and working-age adults, depending on their language skills, find work in the community.<\/p>\n
While communication is often a challenge, Lyon said he\u2019s learned the pleasantries of Arabic and Dari, but adds, \u201ca smile helps you communicate mostly what you need to know\u201d in many situations. The father of one family and Lyon were able to communicate using basic Spanish \u2013 both calling on decades-old language acquisition to piece together simple conversations.<\/p>\n
Isaacs recognizes how much members of the congregation have given to the mission of The House Next Door. From donations of food and furniture, to crossing cultural and religious boundaries, and learning the basics of food stamps and the immigration process, it has been a growing and learning experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the old model of mission where you go to help somebody and instead you grow so much,\u201d she said. \u201c[The mentors] have poured themselves into these families. They learn so much about another faith and another culture, but they also learn that humanity is humanity \u2013 we\u2019re all human and have a lot of similarities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another positive byproduct of the ministry is how it has activated members of the church to see mission all around them and lets newcomers see the church is putting its faith into action.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the people who are involved are newer members,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has been something that has been interesting, intriguing, and attractive to our newer members like we’re actually doing something, getting our hands dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Lyon had only been a member of the church for one year before The House Next Door began. As a recently retired transplant to Colorado Spring, he eagerly jumped into the church and was excited to be part of the ministry to refugee families.<\/p>\n
\u201cA tenant of the New Testament to help the stranger in your midst,\u201d he reflected of his journey as a mentor. \u201cFrom a purely metaphorical position that\u2019s pretty easy to do. But when it gets down to the nitty gritty it presents some challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite these challenges, both Lyon and Isaacs recognize the growing sense of community and family the ministry provides for all involved. In addition to the church providing for the refugee families, Lyon noted how refugee families participate in church clean-up days and one father saying, \u201cWhat can I do for you? I speak four languages, and I can help you with whatever you need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isaacs, who has accepted a call to serve with her husband as co-pastors of Peace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Key West, Florida, praised the ministry for fostering faith and service in the congregation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do it because Jesus said, love your neighbors as yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cJesus didn’t say love your neighbor, so they become a Christ follower. He just said love your neighbor as yourself, right? So that’s what our people are learning that we just love our neighbor. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon said the church is sorry to see Isaacs go, knowing she has put her heart into the launch and support of The House Next Door. But he believes the ministry will continue because of the dedication of church and its mentors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sorry to see her go,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we feel a commitment to keep the project moving along that she was just so committed to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2022, Gateway Presbyterian Church in Colorado Spring, Colorado, began offering its manse for use by refugees coming from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Named \u201cThe House Next Door,\u201d the ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":47190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47191,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47189\/revisions\/47191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}